Currently, in patients with tracheal intubation and tracheostomized patients devices are used for compensating for the lack of humidification and heating of the inspired gases which occurs in normal conditions in the upper respiratory tract.
In order to perform this function, these devices are constituted by a hygroscopic element, generally constituted by a coiled ribbon which is meant to retain moisture and heat during expiration and release them during inspiration.
Currently known embodiments are generally relatively bulky and therefore they are poorly accepted in home-care cases; moreover, they require the presence of additional devices whenever it is necessary to perform oxygen enrichment.
Another problem is that if bronchoaspiration is to be performed, the device must be removed from the patient, with the obvious related difficulties.